On 2 August 2014, due to heavy rainfall, a landslide occurred at the

Sunkoshi river The Sunkoshi, also spelt Sunkosi, is a river of Nepal that is part of the Koshi or Saptkoshi River system in Nepal. Sunkoshi has two source streams, one that arises within Nepal in Choukati, and the other more significant stream that flows in ...

, killing 156 people and blocking the river to form an artificial lake in Sindhupalchok District,

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is ma ...

Araniko Highway The Araniko Highway () connects Kathmandu with Kodari, northeast of the Kathmandu Valley, on the Nepal- China border. It is among the most dangerous of highways in Nepal due to extremely steep slopes on each side of the road from Barabise onw ...

, the main (and only) artery of goods and people flow to China, was blocked by the landslide ripping out 5 km of highway, and causing huge traffic jam. 2 dozens houses have been swept by the landslide. The landslide had a volume of 5.5 million

cubic metre The cubic metre (in Commonwealth English and international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures) or cubic meter (in American English) is the unit of volume in the International System of Units (SI). Its symbol is ...

s. This landslide had massive effects far beyond, not evident from the pictures. The dammed river was threatening to unleash a torrent of water to hundreds of downstream villages that would ravage as far as Northern India. Despite the use of dynamite, it took the Nepali Army 45 days to dig a canal through the blockage to allow water in the lake to drain. The lake created was 47 meters deep and over 400 meters long. The hasty emergency draining through the lake canal itself caused damage to houses downstream and threatens to take out Lamusanghu Hydropower Dam.

2015 earthquakes

Following earthquakes in

April April is the fourth month of the year in the Gregorian and Julian calendars. It is the first of four months to have a length of 30 days, and the second of five months to have a length of less than 31 days. April is commonly associated with ...

and

May May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the third of seven months to have a length of 31 days. May is a month of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore, May ...

2015, concern was expressed that the dam might have become unstable leading to a risk of further flooding downstream of the blockage.

References

Natural disasters in Nepal 2014 in Nepal Sunkoshi blockage Sindhupalchowk District History of Nepal (2008–present) {{Nepal-stub